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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29594517">Roman à Clef</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/julietophelia/pseuds/julietophelia'>julietophelia</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Riverdale (TV 2017)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Episode Tag, Gen, Pregnancy, Toni Topaz-Centric</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 01:34:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,374</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29594517</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/julietophelia/pseuds/julietophelia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“You have to admit, some of the traditions are a little ridiculous.”</i>
</p>
<p>post 5x05</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alice Cooper &amp; Toni Topaz, Jughead Jones &amp; Toni Topaz</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Roman à Clef</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was nearly last call, and Toni couldn't wait to get home. Fangs kept telling her she was crazy to keep working the bar. She was thinking of asking him to cover the rest of her shift, taking him up on his standing offer, when Jughead took the seat right in front of her. Toni sighed. This was the last thing she needed tonight.</p>
<p>“You have to admit, some of the traditions are a little ridiculous,” he said without preamble. His voice was a little slurred. “I mean, getting bit by a rattlesnake to prove your courage?”</p>
<p>Of course Jughead would be a chatty drunk. “You wouldn’t have gotten bit if you hadn’t flinched.”</p>
<p>“Still got the knife, though,” he shot back.</p>
<p>“We don’t do that one anymore,” she admitted.</p>
<p>“And the code. ‘A Serpent never sheds its skin?’ That is literally not true, Toni.”</p>
<p>“You’d think the writer would have heard of a metaphor.”</p>
<p>“It’s a bad metaphor.” He stopped rambling for a moment and took a deep breath. “I just wanted to talk, since we’re going to be working together.”</p>
<p>“I wasn’t exactly working shoulder to shoulder with Ms. Haggly. I think we’ll be fine.”</p>
<p>“And since I took the job upstairs at Pop’s.”</p>
<p>She gripped the edge of the bar top. “There is that.”</p>
<p>“Look, I’m sorry you didn’t like my book.”</p>
<p>“Oh, that sounds sincere,” she snapped, a flare of annoyance rising.</p>
<p>“I can’t apologize if I don’t know what I’m apologizing for. Is it what I wrote, or because I wrote about you at all?” He leaned forward over the bar, his eyes intense. “I wasn’t making fun of you, Toni.”</p>
<p>“What’s the point in having this conversation if you’ll barely remember it in the morning?”</p>
<p>“Perfect time to get some things off your chest.”</p>
<p>She straightened her spine and crossed her arms. “Look, we both left for college, okay? But I came back. So did Fangs. We rebuilt the Serpents from the ground up, and you were in New York using us as life experience, hawking the tale of your wayward youth.”</p>
<p>“It wasn’t—I was in a bad place when I wrote that book.” She rolled her eyes. He pressed on. “I started writing about the Serpents because I wanted to remember the first time I felt like I had a family.”</p>
<p>“If we’re family, why didn’t you come home?”</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t have been any use to you.”</p>
<p>“Then we would have helped you.”</p>
<p>He looked at a loss for words, finally. “I’m sorry, Toni. I don't know what else I can say.”</p>
<p>“You should go home and sleep it off. Try not to show up hungover on Monday.”</p>
<p>“I won’t.” His tone was defensive, and didn’t inspire confidence.</p>
<p>“Do I need to call you a ride?”</p>
<p>He shook his head. “No. Some fresh air couldn't hurt.”</p>
<p>He held his liquor like he'd had plenty of practice, but he was a little unsteady when he stood up. She watched him start to walk away, until she couldn’t bite her tongue any longer. “Wait.” He stopped but kept his back to her. She hurried around the bar and grabbed his shoulder. “You can’t be out on Elm Street alone after dark.”</p>
<p>“On Elm Street?” he said, incredulous.</p>
<p>“There is no northside anymore. Any Ghoulies that didn’t get caught in the raid will be out for revenge, and you’re a target.”</p>
<p>“Because of my book.”</p>
<p>“Because—" She wondered if he was making her say it. He was probably too drunk to play mind games, she reminded herself. “Because you’re a Serpent. Just wait here. I’ll call Archie.”</p>
<p>“It’s okay, I’ll text him.” He took his phone out of his pocket.</p>
<p>“Good. I need an English teacher in one piece if we’re going to have a chance at making this work.”</p>
<p>Jughead waited at a table near the stairs, and she went back to the bar. When Archie arrived, she was seized with a sudden déjà vu. It was just after she’d officially become a full-fledged Serpent. She couldn’t have been more than fifteen. FP had too much to drink, and some nice northside dad showed up at the Wyrm. No one gave him any trouble, or even looked up from their drinks. He waved hello to Hog Eye, put an arm around FP’s shoulders, and led him outside.</p>
<p>The same thing happened again every few weeks, and then two or three times a week. Eventually Mr. Andrews stopped coming, and FP got worse. He started sending Joaquin and some other kids to hang out at the drive-in, trashing it for Hiram Lodge, she found out a lot later. He’d ask them sometimes if they’d seen his boy, if he was okay.</p>
<p>She shuddered, and fought back the tears she felt pricking her eyes. She already had a hundred students to look after, and a baby coming. She couldn’t add Jughead to the list.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Alice wanted her to tape an interview about the changes coming to the school, to reassure panicked parents and counter Hiram’s hit piece. She’d dressed in her Sunday best, not a trace of snake print. With Alice’s perfect living room behind her, no one would remember insinuations of snake dancing and seedy bars.</p>
<p>Dagwood and Juniper were watching cartoons when Alice let her in. The scar from Dagwood’s tracheotomy had faded to almost nothing, a thin white slice mark. You couldn’t see it unless you knew it was there. It was the first place Toni’s eyes went every time she saw him.</p>
<p>Alice turned off the tv and hurried the twins upstairs. “Go play in your rooms for a bit, okay?”</p>
<p>The next generation of Blossoms raced up the stairs. Toni was glad they didn’t remember her. It meant they couldn’t remember all the times they’d sat on their father’s stiff, cold lap, babbling up at his waxy face. They’d cry when Jason didn’t smile back, and Cheryl would have to pick them up again.</p>
<p>Somehow they’d survived toddlerhood, and grown into perfectly normal kids under the care of their grandmother. They seemed unburdened by any curse, at least for now.</p>
<p>Her hand settled on her belly without thinking. Sometimes she wondered what the hell had ever given her the idea that she could be a mother. Real snakes abandoned their young as soon as they hatched, after all.</p>
<p>She’d never asked for the responsibility of caring for the twins, and she’d been barely eighteen. She was older now, more mature. She had to forgive herself for being too young to know any better. That’s what her therapist told her.</p>
<p>She wished she could talk to her mother, ask her if she’d been scared, too. She could talk to Alice, maybe, but Alice had given her son away and he’d turned into a serial killer. It seemed like a sore subject.</p>
<p>Andi Amethyst wasn't scared of anything. The thought nearly made her burst out laughing. That stupid book. Seeing her teenage self immortalized as a side character in Jughead’s novel had made her realize she was a side character in her own life.</p>
<p>She’d always been afraid to step up with the Serpents. The Pretty Poisons had crumbled before they’d begun. Even after college, she’d spent a few years just waiting around for her life to start, for Cheryl to decide they could be together again, for someone to tell her what to do. She’d decided then that she couldn’t afford to wait any longer.</p>
<p>Alice adjusted the camera on its tripod, then took a seat in the armchair opposite her.</p>
<p>“Are you ready?”</p>
<p>“Yeah. Of course.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Toni closed up early on Sunday night. She switched off the lights and climbed the speakeasy stairs, clinging to the railing. Her feet were sore enough from spending hours on her feet, and over the last few months, this goddamn staircase had become a nightly Everest.</p>
<p>Tabitha was behind the register, and Jughead was wiping down the counter at the far end.</p>
<p>“Night, Tabitha,” she said as she passed.</p>
<p>“Night, Toni.”</p>
<p>She almost walked right out the door, but she stopped and turned back. “Good night, Jones.”</p>
<p>His head snapped up in surprise, and he gave her that charming Jones smile. “See you at school?”</p>
<p>“Yeah. I’ll see you.”</p>
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